Quick Card: The Red badge of Courage Reference The Red Badge of Courage. Stephen Crane. (1895) ISBN-13: 978-0486264653 When young Henry Fleming enlists in the Civil War, he dreams of epic battles Plot and heroism. His encounter with the reality of war will change his perspective. • A Civil War battle loosely based upon the Battle of Chancellorsville • Henry’s youth Setting • The battlefield • The woods • The interior of Henry’s mind • Henry Fleming – (protagonist) a youth endeavoring to come of age. He longs to have courage and become a war hero. • Wilson – also called the loud or boasting soldier. He becomes a dedicated soldier whose experience grants him humility and concern for others. • The Cheery Soldier – the friendly, helpful soldier who befriends Henry when he returns after his cowardly flight • The General – he demeans Henry’s unit and goads Henry to fight Characters • Jim Conklin – (also called the tall soldier) His confidence encourages and inspires the new soldiers. Henry witnesses his unheroic and meaningless death. • Lieutenant Hasbrouck – Union leader who calls Henry “wildcat” in his second engagement • The Tattered Soldier – the talkative and friendly soldier whom Henry deserts because he asks too many questions that might expose Henry as a phony and a liar ©2016 The Center for Literary Education www.centerforlit.com Man vs. Society; Man vs. Himself; Man vs. Man: Will Henry find the courage Conflict he seeks and become a war hero? Will Henry find a way to reconcile himself with his cowardly behavior? Will Henry gain experience and become a man? • Nature’s indifference to man’s fate • The need for social and human empathy and action • The impossibility of courage in a purely material world without God Theme • Man as a machine/animal • Coming of Age – Naiveté to Experience • Survival of the Fittest • Fragmented Man – the Meaninglessness of Life • Imagery – use of vivid language to create pictures which represent abstract ideas • Symbolism – an extended metaphor or image that draws on story themes • Literary Realism – represents society “as it really is.” Literary realists demonstrate a great concern for accurate representations of reality. • Regionalism/Local Color – use of dialect and description to realistically portray a particular region or locality • Negative Capability – the ability to live with the seeming paradox of human existence (to live as though there were meaning in a world Literary Devices without meaning). This is one of the major ideas of modernist literature. • Social Determinism/ Social Darwinism – idea that heredity and social environment determine one’s character and shape one’s actions. This replaces ideals and virtue. Only the fittest survive. • Darwinism – evolutionary theory which influenced motive in character development for Crane (i.e. man is an animal who acts via instinct and not any higher orders or faculties. He’s a bundle of cells subject to genetic ancestry and conditioned by social and economic circumstances.) • Naturalism – realistic literary representations of nature. An outgrowth of literary realism. ©2016 The Center for Literary Education www.centerforlit.com .